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She stepped back and motioned me inside. “I haven’t seen or heard from my daughter in a couple days. But I heard about what you said. Turns out the whole damn town heard.”
I sighed, knowing I wouldn’t get out of this without an explanation. “I want to blame beer and bravado, but they weren’t the culprits. They might have been the instigators, but it was all me.” I told her about Liam and Stone teasing me and giving me a hard time. “I was stupid, I know that. But at the time, I was reacting. Badly.”
Mirabelle limped her way to the kitchen and motioned for me to sit. “So, your friends teased you about liking a girl and you went overboard to prove you didn’t like her?”
Damn, how did she know? “Something like that.”
“And now?”
I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was asking. “Now, I’d like to speak to Eva.”
“Because you pulled your head from your behind and you know how you feel about her? Or because you feel guilty that you hurt her feelings?”
I smiled and shook my head. “I see where she gets it from, never giving an inch.”
Mirabelle tossed her head back and laughed. “Well, that’s true, I suppose. It’s one of many charms we Vargas women have.”
“Can’t argue with that.” I shook my head. “All the things that annoyed me about her before, now I find them endearing. What’s wrong with me?”
She laughed again. “That’s simple. You’re in love, boy. In love!”
In love. Were there two scarier words in the English language? “Is that what this sick feeling in my stomach is?”
“It sure is. Isn’t it great?” Mira smiled and it turned to a laugh at my look of discomfort and the squirming that followed.
Thankfully, she took pity on me and told me exactly where I could find Eva.
Now, it was all up to me.EvaThe memorial garden inside the Pilgrim Town Park was, hands down, my favorite place in town. It was no more than a circle, ten feet across, with plants and flowers growing in rows of red and blue and purple and green, on and on until it was a stunning visual effect that I found relaxing.
Calming.
It was the place I came when I needed a quiet place to think, to clear my mind without the interruptions of the rest of the world. Today, though, I was only here for the peace and the quiet. There was nothing to think about, no fog currently cluttering up my brain and no problems I needed to work out on my own. I had a heart that was healing, an ego that was only a little banged up, and two businesses that were thriving.
I had nothing to complain about. Nothing to be sad about.
“Nothing at all.” My eyes drifted shut, letting the sound of birds chirping the day’s news wash over me. In the distance, a car door shut, probably some tourist stopping to take photos of the flower circle, or the other tributes to the men and women who settled this town a couple hundred years ago.
“Eva.”
Oliver. Maybe if I ignored him, he would just go away.
“I’m glad I found you,” he panted. “It wasn’t an easy task.” There was amusement in his voice and my lips ached to smile at the tone, but I refused.
“I wasn’t lost.”
“No, of course not. But of all the things we talked about, your love of this place managed to be the most well-kept secret in town.” Which meant he’d gone to Mama to find out where I was. I might have been impressed, if I was hopeful. Which I wasn’t.
“Well, here I am. What are you doing here, Oliver?”
“Seriously? I left nearly one hundred messages, I feel like a stalker!”
“And, yet, here you are. Why?”
He sighed, probably raked a hand through his hair but I refused to turn and look at him. I didn’t want to see evidence of the distress I heard in his voice. The guilt. The sorrow. “I owe you an apology.”
Just then, I did turn to face him and instantly regretted it. “That’s where you’re wrong. You don’t owe me anything. Not one thing.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong, babe. The first thing I owe you is an apology, and I’m sorry, Eva, so damn sorry that I let my own fear get in the way of something great. Really fucking great.”
It had been great. Really great, just as he’d said. “And now it’s over.”
“Is it? Because it doesn’t feel like it’s over. Does it feel that way to you?”
I nodded. “Since I heard your true feelings, yeah, Oliver, it feels pretty over to me.”
“Dammit, Eva, I’m sorry.”
“You said that already. Apology accepted.” It didn’t matter at this point, anyway, and if he needed forgiveness to get back to our lives, then I could give him that.
